The most over-the-top Samsung Dex experience: UPerfect UDock X 15.6 Pro lapdock

Samsung’s Dex desktop interface has been a unique selling point of high-end Galaxy phones for a number of years now, and while its beginnings were humble, it’s now very much become a full-featured experience. Even Google has taken note and is about to officially add a similar Desktop Mode to Android as standard.

For the uninitiated, Dex is a “desktop-style” interface, sort of like Windows or MacOS, which appears on screen when you connect certain Galaxy phones to an external monitor. This isn’t just a more appropriate way to show applications on a larger screen – Dex, or Android’s upcoming Desktop Mode, practically make your phone’s OS behave more like that of a PC.
For example, you can open more applications at once, and they all appear in windows that you can move around, minimize, maximize and resize freely. You can switch between windows/apps with alt+tab, just like on a desktop OS. Many apps, which support dual- or triple-pane interfaces, use them by default. Opening the desktop versions of websites in the browser looks and feels just like on a PC. In short, Samsung’s Dex means that your phone can easily transform into a full-blown desktop computer that can skyrocket your productivity.

And thanks to Samsung’s success in the mobile tech market, it’s even managed to spawn a bit of an ecosystem around Dex.

Enter: the lapdock

Sorry, we haven’t defined “lapdock” yet, have we?

In the common use case, you’d connect your Galaxy phone to an external monitor, keyboard and mouse, and while that’s all great, some very smart fellow out there decided that it might be even cooler if they put all three together. Turns out, the resulting device resembles a laptop, only without the smarts like a motherboard, CPU, GPU and so on. This is what a lapdock is: a laptop without the smarts – making it considerably cheaper. The smarts are in your phone, which you connect to the lapdock. You can also use a lapdock with pretty much any mini PC or normal PC, for whatever reason.

There aren’t a gazillion lapdocks available out there, but there are a few popular models. One of the more well-known ones is the UDock X 15.6 Pro by UPerfect, which retails at around $400, but can be found for as low as $300. If you’d like to grab one, be sure to use the discount codes at the end of this article.

In the US, this product is popular as the NexDock XL, which is sold at $299, making it a very good deal. I’m not sure if NexDock has made any tweaks to the design, but by and large it seems to be the same product.
You can connect your phone to the UDock X 15.6 Pro either via a USB cable, or wirelessly. Wireless connectivity is one of the things that distinguishes the UDock X 15.6 Pro lapdock from more external monitors out there.

Unfortunately, there are still some unpleasant limitations with using Dex wirelessly. Most of all, it’s somewhat laggy and limited to 30 Hz. Other than that, though, it’s mostly usable for casual tasks. However, a way better experience takes place when you use Dex via cable – this works great with the UDock X 15.6 Pro. With a wired connection, Dex is limited to 60 Hz (not perfect, but way better), and can go as high as 4K resolution with the proper monitor.

The UPerfect UDock X 15.6 has a 15.6” IPS display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 px and 100% sRGB coverage. For what it is, it looks great! It’s even a touch display, and the hinges rotate all-around, sort of like a Yoga notebook, so you can position it like a tent, or pretty much any way you like. The screen can get bright enough, but it can’t get very dim, if and when needed.

The backlit keyboard is perfectly fine. The keys are large enough and feel comfortable to type on. If you’re wondering why the keyboard has been moved closer to the front edge, it’s because there is a wireless charging pad where the keyboard would usually sit. This is a cool feature to have, especially if you’re using Dex wirelessly. When using it with a cable, the phone naturally charges through the cable.

The touchpad to the right of the keyboard is not bad, and could have been great (but isn’t). Tracking is actually surprisingly precise. Moving the cursor around is pleasant – it’s accurate and the surface doesn’t cause unwanted friction. Scrolling is a different affair. The problem is that the touchpad behaves not like a touchpad, but like a mouse wheel. Scrolling direction is like on a mouse wheel, and it’s not smooth, but in steps – just like with a mouse wheel. It’s actually not that bad once you set the scrolling speed properly and get used to it. The only annoying issue is that it doesn’t properly register fast scrolling movements, and so you need to get used to making the two-finger scrolling gesture with the appropriate pace for it to work well. Other than that, it’s actually fun to use.

Is this giant Dex accessory worth it?

The UPerfect UDock X 15.6 Pro is a big lapdock. It’s definitely meant for longer work sessions. At almost 2 kg or 4.4 lbs, it’s also quite heavy. Sure, it has a built-in battery, but it still feels a bit overweight.

Nevertheless, for around $300, this is a rather cool and feature-rich product. You basically get a nice, backlit keyboard, a usable trackpad, an external battery, speakers, a pretty good 15.6” FHD touchscreen with 100% sRGB coverage, and a wireless charging pad, all in a reasonably stylish design – and in a single product that will let you take advantage of your Galaxy phone’s Dex mode to the fullest. What’s not to like?

You can get the UPerfect UDock X 15.6 Pro here!

You can also use these exclusive discount codes if you decide to purchase directly from UPerfect’s store (they also have some pretty dope external monitors):

RadSlavov60, $60 off for orders over $400
RadSlavov80, $80 off for orders over $500

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